purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these atrocious acts--for if _this_ fire was not intentional, _others_ undoubtedly were--the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South Wales. Unhappily, the word _incendiarism_ has become familiar to English ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the land. But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not altogether a _popular_ ruler. The vices of the lower classes were, in too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; and since both classes became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that, at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been divided into those who _drank_ rum, and those who _sold_ it;[110] when we recollect the covetousness of all classes, the hardened wickedness of many of the convicts, the idleness of the settlers or soldiers, the peculiar character of the natives, and the infant state of the British colony, it must be confessed, that the requisites of every good governor,--a wise head, a stout heart, and a steady hand,--were preeminently needful in the governor of New South Wales. [110] Promissory notes were given, payable in rum instead of money.--JUDGE BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South Wales_, p. 7, note.